Alfred Hitchcock’s films are renowned the world over, and a mountain of literature has detailed seemingly every facet of them. Yet remarkably few studies have solely focused on the recurring motifs in Hitchcock’s films. Michael Walker remedies this surprising gap in Hitchcock literature with an innovative and in-depth study of the sustained motifs and themes threaded through Hitchcock’s entire body of work.

Combing through all fifty-two extant feature films and representative episodes from Hitchcock’s television series, Walker traces over forty motifs that emerge in recurring objects, settings, character-types, and events. Whether the loaded meaning of staircases, the symbolic status of keys and handbags, homoeroticism, guilt and confession, or the role of art, Walker analyzes such elements to reveal a complex web of cross-references in Hitchcock’s art. He also gives full attention to the broader social contexts in which the motifs and themes are played out, arguing that these interwoven elements add new and richer depths to Hitchcock’s oeuvre. An invaluable, encyclopedic resource for the scholar and fan, Hitchcock’s Motifs is a fascinating study of one of the best-known and most admired film directors in history.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Michael Walker is an independent writer and member of the editorial board of Movie magazine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I: Hitschock, Motifs and Melodrama
Introduction
Three motifs
Home movies
Cigarette case/lighter
Milk
Melodrama and Hitchcock's motifs
An elaborated motif: the Bed Scene in Rebecca and Marnie
A melodramatic motif: hands
Diagrammitc representations
Overview of the key motifs

Part II: The Key Motifs
Bed Scene
Blondes and Brunettes
Cameo Appearances
Children
Confined Spaces
The Corpse
Dogs and Cats
Doubles
Endings and the Police
Entry Through a Window
Exhibitionism/Voyeurism/The Look
Food and Meals
Guilt and Confession
Handcuffs and Bondage
Hands
Heights and Falling
Homosexuality
Jewellery
Keys and Handbags
Light(s)
The MacGuffin
Moters and Houses
Portraits, Paintings, and Painters
Public Disturbances
Spectacles
Staircases
Trains and Boats/Planes and Buses
Water and Rain

Alfred Hitchcock’s films are renowned the world over, and a mountain of literature has detailed seemingly every facet of them. Yet remarkably few studies have solely focused on the recurring motifs in Hitchcock’s films. Michael Walker remedies this surprising gap in Hitchcock literature with an innovative and in-depth study of the sustained motifs and themes threaded through Hitchcock’s entire body of work.

Combing through all fifty-two extant feature films and representative episodes from Hitchcock’s television series, Walker traces over forty motifs that emerge in recurring objects, settings, character-types, and events. Whether the loaded meaning of staircases, the symbolic status of keys and handbags, homoeroticism, guilt and confession, or the role of art, Walker analyzes such elements to reveal a complex web of cross-references in Hitchcock’s art. He also gives full attention to the broader social contexts in which the motifs and themes are played out, arguing that these interwoven elements add new and richer depths to Hitchcock’s oeuvre. An invaluable, encyclopedic resource for the scholar and fan, Hitchcock’s Motifs is a fascinating study of one of the best-known and most admired film directors in history.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Michael Walker is an independent writer and member of the editorial board of Movie magazine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I: Hitschock, Motifs and Melodrama
Introduction
Three motifs
Home movies
Cigarette case/lighter
Milk
Melodrama and Hitchcock's motifs
An elaborated motif: the Bed Scene in Rebecca and Marnie
A melodramatic motif: hands
Diagrammitc representations
Overview of the key motifs

Part II: The Key Motifs
Bed Scene
Blondes and Brunettes
Cameo Appearances
Children
Confined Spaces
The Corpse
Dogs and Cats
Doubles
Endings and the Police
Entry Through a Window
Exhibitionism/Voyeurism/The Look
Food and Meals
Guilt and Confession
Handcuffs and Bondage
Hands
Heights and Falling
Homosexuality
Jewellery
Keys and Handbags
Light(s)
The MacGuffin
Moters and Houses
Portraits, Paintings, and Painters
Public Disturbances
Spectacles
Staircases
Trains and Boats/Planes and Buses
Water and Rain